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Alaska Checking E-Mailed Slurs About Obama

Alaska officials are investigating e-mail messages that included racist jokes about President-elect Barack Obama and were circulated on state government accounts by state employees.

Officials say that the messages apparently originated in a private account but that about 10 state employees appear to have “taken action” on them, like forwarding them to others.

Bill McAllister, a spokesman for Gov. Sarah Palin, said Thursday that none of the 10 employees worked in the governor’s office and that to his knowledge no one in the office had received any of the messages, which, he said, Ms. Palin condemns.

“They violate state policy — at least that’s the prima facie view of things,” Mr. McAllister said in a telephone interview. “They’re not state business, and obviously they are offensive, and clearly she doesn’t support that. And she does not support racism, and she does not support attacks on the president-elect.”

The messages were first reported by The Associated Press, which did not say how it had learned of them. The news agency said it had obtained five messages with racist comments, including one that summarized the significance of Mr. Obama’s election victory as “another black family living in government housing.”

Annette Kreitzer, the state commissioner of administration, told The A.P. that the employees who forwarded the messages could be reprimanded but that it was unlikely they would be dismissed. Ms. Kreitzer did not immediately respond Thursday to requests for an interview.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A31 of the New York edition with the headline: Alaska Checking E-Mailed Slurs About Obama. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe